


99 problems

by Over_the_Love204



Series: maybe i'm a different breed [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Child Abuse, Drama, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 13:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Over_the_Love204/pseuds/Over_the_Love204
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follows "Little Lion Man." Neville meets Stefan's parents, finds them lacking, and attempts a rescue. The school year is only moderately better. But not much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	99 problems

**Author's Note:**

> Here's part two xD
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries, or Harry Potter.

"I can't believe she said yes," Neville mumbled. His eyes scanned the piece of parchment again and read the same lines his Gran had written with heavy black ink. "Look," Neville handed the letter to Stefan and the other young wizard plucked it from his hands.

Stefan read through Neville's Gran's letter and smiled, "She said you could come spend the first two weeks of summer at my house, Neville."

"That's what I can't believe," Neville said, but felt his spirits rising all the same. "She's never let me do that before." He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Not that I've really had anyone offer."

Stefan beamed, "Well, if it's alright with your Gran, you can come over every summer if you'd like. My house is huge and Damon has friends over all the time when we're home."

Neville accepted, pleased, and the two boys carried their trunks down the boys' dorm steps and out of Gryffindor Tower. They walked through the hallways and the passing portraits waved them off, yelling good-bye from their frames.

Once they arrived from the carriages to the Hogwarts' Express, the boys hurried onto the train to find their friends' compartment.

"There," Stefan pointed and opened up the sliding door to a nearly full partition. Elena smiled brightly at him and sitting around her was Lexi, Caroline Forbes, Bonnie Bennett, and a boy Stefan vaguely remembered from the Sorting all those months ago, Mathew Donovan.

"I hope you didn't mind, I invited Caroline and Bonnie to sit with us," Elena said, "And then Caroline invited her friend Matt."

Neville stuttered that it was perfectly fine, and Stefan murmured his agreement, but knew that the other boy would be a little uncomfortable.

The train ride started out awkward, but soon the tension lifted as Matt proved he had a funny sense of humor. Neville and Stefan played Exploding Snap, and the girls chattered about Harry Potter's end of the school year adventure with his two best friends involving You-Know-Who.

The trolley witch came and went and soon the train began to slow down. The students gathered their things and walked onto on the platform, looking for their parents. Stefan and Neville stood with Elena, and spied Damon and Katherine walking towards them, arms slung around each other, giggling.

"Hey, 'Lena," Katherine greeted and her sharp eyes searched Elena's immaculate appearance for anything wrong. Their parents prided themselves for perfection and always sure their children were at their best.

Damon greeted Stefan with a noogie. "Ah! Geroff!" Damon laughed and Stefan moaned, "You messed up my hair!"

"You girl," Damon teased.

"Ladies?" A feminine voice interrupted and the children broke apart. They turned around to see two beautiful people; the woman had long, curly brown hair that fell to the middle of her back, and her body was curvy and she wore conservative clothes. One of her eyebrows was raised with wry amusement and her lips twitched into a half-smile. The man dressed as immaculate as she, but his hair was salt and pepper colored and his face was stretched into a wide grin for his daughters. At his side was a boy of ten, his shaggy brown hair in his eyes. The mother's eyes shot to the boy's hair, and her mouth tugged down in the corner with exasperation.

"Katherine, Elena!" The man called to them in a heavy Bulgarian accent, "My lovely ladies are home! One of them a Hogwarts graduate, no less! And Damon! How are you, my boy?"

Damon smiled politely and shook hands with Katherine and Elena's father. Elena hugged her little brother, "Jeremy! I've got all kinds of things to tell you about school!"

The Petrova's stayed only for a few minutes longer and Elena hugged Stefan good-bye and then the wizard family Apparated away with a sharp crack! 

"Elena's family seemed nice," Neville said to Stefan quietly.

Stefan nodded cheerfully, "Yeah, they're a really nice. They let Elena come over during the summer sometimes with Katherine."

The three waited for the Salvatore parents to arrive, and watched as Weasley's collected their sons, a man with a handlebar mustache collected Harry and a set of lost muggles picked up Hermione. Damon's owl Cass hooted loudly from her cage and Damon absent mindedly stroked her sleek black feathers. She hooted again and Neville saw why; a man and woman were walking straight towards them. The man was very stern looking; frown lines were at the edges of his mouth and eyes, and his irises were a sharp and icy blue. His salt and pepper hair was combed back to look presentable. The woman had short, wavy dark hair that fell to her shoulders. It was a lot like Damon's, and her eyes matched Stefan's bright green ones.

Mr. Salvatore was tan, and his hands looked calloused, while Mrs. Salvatore's skin was like smooth porcelain. Her face had laugh lines around her ruby red mouth, and indeed, her lips pulled into a smile at the sight of her boys and Neville.

"Damon! Congratulations on graduating," She greeted and pulled her eldest into a tight hug. Her husband grunted a gruff greeting as well, "Could've had better marks."

No one paid Mr. Salvatore any mind, and Mrs. Salvatore pulled Stefan into a hug. When she let go, introduced herself to Neville.

"Hello, I'm Victoire Salvatore. Stefan's told me all about you, Neville. You're such a good friend," She smiled and Neville felt his own round face flush and return the smile.

"Thank you, Mrs. Salvatore."

After being introduced to Giuseppe Salvatore, the five of them filed out of the station and into a muggle car sitting outside. The car was had two front seats and three in the back. Mrs. Salvatore frowned at the car, and said, "Here, let me –" She discreetly waved her wand and the back seat of the car widened enough for the three students to sit comfortably. Neville saw Mr. Salvatore frown a little more, but he said nothing.

They rode through London and Neville took in all the sights of the city. It was nice and he wondered aloud, "Do you live in the city?"

"Yeah, a few blocks down that way," Stefan flung in arm in a vague direction up the street.

Mr. Salvatore cleared his throat and his deep, gravelly voice asked, "How were your marks, Stefan? Better than your brother's, I hope."

Mrs. Salvatore clucked her tongue at her husband, "You know Damon is a good student and he put a lot of time into Quidditch and several House clubs. I'm proud of him."

Mr. Salvatore grumbled a bit more, and Neville shuffled in his seat awkwardly. Next to him, Damon pretended to be unconcerned about his father's words, but Neville could see the downward turn of his mouth. Stefan seemed as awkward as Neville felt.

"My marks were fine, Dad."

"Just, 'fine'?" Mr. Salvatore asked, his voice clearly annoyed.

Mrs. Salvatore sighed, but didn't say anything about to her husband again. For the rest of the ride to the Salvatore home, Neville wondered if the whole summer was going to be filled with quarreling parents and children.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Salvatore home was a large building on a busy London street – it was in a Victorian Era style, and was very fancy and expensive looking.

"What do your parents do for a living?" Neville whispered in Stefan's ear.

"Dad's the owner of a chain of banks all over Britain and Mom works in the Ministry of Magic," Stefan whispered back.

The Salvatore's and Neville climbed out of the now parked car and walked up to the lovely home. Damon was dragging his trunk behind him and Cass fluttered around in her cage. Thunder rumbled overhead and Stefan and Neville picked up their trunks hurriedly to get inside the warm house.

Neville found that the inside of his friend's home was even more extravagant than the outside would have led you to believe. There were hard wooden floors in the foyer and he could hear a grandfather clock chime that it was six o'clock. The foyer was finely decorated, but Neville had no time to linger as Stefan was ushering him up to his bedroom on the second floor. Damon passed them, ruffling Stefan's hair as he went on down the hall to his own room.

"Here we are," Stefan opened the door and Neville's eyes widened. Stefan's room was large – larger than their dorm room at Hogwarts, and there was a large canopy bed sat in the center with silk sheets and a thick red bedspread. The floor was also wooden, but there was a large, round rug in starting in the center than spread to the edges of the room. There were posters of muggle and wizard variety, only some of which were of Quidditch. The walls were a dark maroon, and there was a large window with heavy drapes on the other side of the room.

"Wow," Neville murmured, awed.

Stefan flushed. "It's a bit much, I know."

"It's amazing."

The room was messier than rest of the house, as far as Neville could see, but it was still much cleaner than you'd expect an eleven year old boy's room to look like. A few knick-knacks littered the floor, and a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans were barely visible, peeking out from under the large bed.

The boys dragged their trunks and set them onto the bedspread, and popped them open. Someone knocked on Stefan's door, and the boys turned to see Damon lean on the hinge.

"Supper's almost done down there, and Mom and Dad want us to come down," He said. The older boy had changed out of his robes and was wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt. On his feet were sleek looking motorbike boots.

"We're coming," Stefan started, but was interrupted by a large bang that came from downstairs. Neville jumped, but Stefan and Damon acted like nothing was out of the norm.

"On second thought, maybe we should wait," Damon drawled, and Neville was about to ask why when an explosion of shouting started from below.

Neville looked down, embarrassed hearing his friend's parents have a shouting match beneath his feet.

"Don't look so glum, Neville," Damon said, startling the boy, "They do that all the time." But as the older boy's voice was cheerful, something his cold blue eyes made Neville think that there was a whole lot more to it than that.

The screeching voices seemed to reach a crescendo, and Neville could make out Mrs. Salvatore's tones, "-And I thought that you were going to attempt to make an effort to be nice in front of Stefan's friend!"

Neville and Stefan both flushed.

"Elena and Katherine are here all the time and they don't care about our fighting!"

"They do, but they're too scared to say anything about it!"

Damon stepped out of the room and shut the door quietly. Stefan looked down, not meeting Neville's eyes as they heard his older brother stomp down the stairs and start shouting for their parents to shut the hell up.

"I understand if you want to go home," Stefan murmured quietly.

Neville swallowed and yeah, maybe he did kind of want to go home, but he wasn't going to leave his best friend alone with his crazy family for the entire summer while they screamed each other hoarse.

"No thanks," Neville said and Stefan blinked wide eyes at him, "I think I'll stay the rest of the two weeks, and you can ask your parents if you can come over to my Gran's later this summer."

Stefan beamed.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over the course of the summer, there was at least one huge row between Stefan's parents a day, and three times a week Damon would join in, and everyday Stefan and Neville would try to avoid the boy's parents when they fought. Damon was in the process of moving out of the house, of which he loudly announced to his parents that he was glad to do. His father would steam and shout obscenities back, while his mother would become tearful.

Neville felt awkward for the entire two weeks, but never did he feel as horrified as he was on the final day of his visit.

He was walking down the fancy steps and into the kitchen to see Mr. Salvatore backhand Stefan in the face, his family ring drawing blood. What was worse was that Stefan stood stoically, as if this was a common occurrence. Neville spied a bottle of liquor on the counter and saw that Mr. Salvatore was more than a little inebriated.

He scurried backwards out of the kitchen and up the steps and crashed straight into Damon's legs. The older boy was shoved back a step, and said, "Whoa, kid. What's going on?"

"Downstairs – your Dad – Stefan –" Neville tried to stutter out what had happened, and Damon's eyes narrowed.

"Go to Stefan's room and finish up packing your things; I'll handle whatever's going on."

Neville, too nervous to do anything else, followed Damon's instructions. When Stefan came into the room a few moments later with a black eye and a bleeding gash on his cheek, Neville bit his lip.

The two boys stood still for several minutes.

"Does he- does your dad do that – a – a lot?" Neville asked quietly.

"Just when he's drunk," Stefan murmured.

"Does – does your mom know?"

"Dad's good at persuasion too," Stefan said cryptically.

Neville had nothing to say to that, except, "You wanna come to my Gran's house with me for the rest of the summer?"

"Yeah. That'd be good," Stefan said, and walked to fetch his trunk.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stefan spent the last month and a half at Neville's.

One week in, a kneazle arrived with a bow and a note of apology from his mom and brother. There was nothing from his father, not that either boys had particularly expected there to be.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first of September approached much more quickly than Stefan would have thought possible. His first couple of days at Neville's Gran's was weird, and the awkward tension between him and Neville was unsettling. They silently agreed to not mention anything about their first part of summer to Neville's Gran.

The tension dissipated within the second week, and Stefan enjoyed himself at Neville's. He and Elena and Lexi owled each other and he learned from them that the new DADA professor was Gilderoy Lockhart, a famous and arrogant book author.

They all met up in Diagon Alley to collect their things, and Stefan noticed that Elena and Neville spoke quietly and briefly at one interval. He knew what they were talking about, but tried to ignore them. He knew that his parents' arguments weren't the norm for regular families, and that not every father hit their sons when he was drunk, but Stefan could pretend that his family was normal while he was away from it.

Lexi and he admired the new brooms on the line at Quality Quidditch Supplies, while Elena and Neville pulled back a little, not really being Quidditch fans.

At one point on their trip, Stefan saw the Golden Trio of Gryffindor in the bookstore, as well as Draco Malfoy. He'd avoided a confrontation with the other boy all last year, so Stefan should have known that his luck couldn't have held out.

After Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy finished their brawl outside Flourish and Blotts, Malfoy Jr. spotted the group of four lingering in front of the shop. Malfoy Sr. looked his nose down on them, and Draco sneered.

"Well, it must be the day of the bloodtraitors day – we keep seeming to run into them this afternoon," Lucius Malfoy drawled.

Lexi clenched her fists and Elena scowled, while Stefan and Neville exchanged glances. A moment later, Neville's Gran swooped down on them from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Lucius Malfoy, get away from my grandson and his friends before I turn you into one of the white peacocks you keep at your Manor!"

Lucius scowled, but took his son away from them, and they strode down to Madam Maulkins.

"Now, then, who's ready to go?" Neville's Gran asked promptly.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damon appeared at Neville's on the first day of school to see Stefan off on the train. Neville's Gran appraised him, but didn't say much to the man.

The two adults waved them off at the station, and Neville and Stefan searched for their friends. They found Elena, Lexi, Caroline, and Bonnie in one compartment, and Stefan realized that the estrogen severely outweighed the testosterone in his school relationships.

The ride was filled with lighthearted chatter, and at one point Hermione joined them.

"Where are Harry and Ron?" Stefan asked her quietly.

"I don't know," She wailed, "They were at the station, but I haven't seen them since, and they aren't on the train!"

Everyone tried to comfort the distraught girl, and Elena and Lexi managed to distract her for a the rest of the ride.

When they all got to Hogwarts, they heard not a thing from the two boys, and everyone was truly becoming worried for their welfare.

Elena's little brother Jeremy was sorted into Slytherin, and Elena waved cheerfully at him. The boy returned the wave half heartily, embarrassed. Ron's little sister Ginny was quickly sorted into Gryffindor.

Dumbledore could be seen surveying the Great Hall, his wise blue eyes not twinkling. Harry and Ron didn't show up until that evening in Gryffindor Tower and they regaled everyone on their misadventure involving Mr. Weasley's Ford Anglia and the Whomping Willow tree.

Hermione was furious at them, and so Neville and Stefan ducked for cover behind one of the Common Room's sofas. Harry and Ron scurried up to the boys' dorms, leaving Hermione yelling up the stairs at them.

Elena went to comfort her and Lexi plopped down next to Stefan and Neville. "Well, that was scary; I certainly wouldn't want to get on Hermione's bad side."

The two boys nodded their heads quickly in agreement.

"So," Lexi called cheerfully, "Who wants to play exploding snap?"

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first day of class was a Monday, and therefore the Gryffindors had Potions with the Slytherins.

"Bloody hell," They heard Ron mutter when he got his schedule, and assumed he'd seen what their first class was.

"Better get down there," Stefan said Neville, and the pudgy boy followed his friend from the Great Hall. Elena walked on Stefan's other side, Lexi beside her.

Once in Potions and in their seats, they noticed the directions on the board for their brew of the day. Snape sneered at them, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get your supplies and . . . begin."

The Second Years scrambled over to get their things, and soon the rest of the class was filtering in and beginning their potions assignment as well.

There was an explosion twenty minutes into the lesson and everyone's head swiveled to Seamus' cauldron accordingly. The Irish boy scowled, but it was hard to tell for all of the soot covering his face.

"Mr. Finnegan. Five points from Gryffindor for destroying a cauldron."

The Gryffindors groaned while the Slytherins cheered quietly at the point loss. "Get back to work," Snape growled, and the room was deadly silent once more.

"No, don't stir clockwise, you're supposed –" Stefan quietly corrected Neville, narrowly avoiding discovery by Snape. He let out of quiet breath of relief.

The lesson was over soon enough, but only after two more exploding cauldrons, a breakout of hives and two almost spills later.

"Snape is horrible," Stefan growled, shooting Snape a dark look for marking points off of Stefan's potion for it being a shade off the intended color, "It's not like the potion was affected – it would still work."

"Well, at least we have Herbology next," Neville said to him, attempting to be cheerful.

"Lucky for you, maybe," Stefan said, resigned. "I suck."

"No! You don't! Um, I mean, not a lot. You're . . . okay at it?" Neville stammered.

"I'd just stop talking, Neville," Lexi suggested, smirking as she walked on ahead of them.

Neville sighed. "Yeah."

Elena was frowning, "I hope Jeremy is doing okay today."

Stefan gave her a half smile, and said, "I'm sure he is, 'Lena. He's probably making all kinds of friends."

"As long as one of them isn't Malfoy," Elena said darkly, and Neville hedged away from the girl; she could be mightily scary when she wanted to.

The next day brought Ron a howler from his mother for crashing their car into the Whomping Willow and a horrible lesson in DADA with their new professor. Lockhart had loosed several Cornish Pixies on them and the Slytherins, instantly making him an enemy of Lexi, who had sworn vengeance.

("Sometimes I wonder why she's not a Slytherin," Neville told Stefan shakily, and the latter nodded his head in vigorous agreement.)

School continued as usual and it appeared that this year would be a nice, calm normal affair.

Appearances are deceiving.

On Halloween, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party, which Stefan thought was nice of them, but on their way back, they were found at the scene of a crime – Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, was petrified and on the walls,

"THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE," was written in blood.

"This year's going to be as bad as last year, isn't it?" Neville moaned quietly.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I just knew something bad was going to happen," Bonnie confided to Neville, Stefan, Elena, Lexi, and Caroline. They were sitting in the library with Jeremy, who looked nonplussed to be hanging out with his older sister's friends.

"Bonnie's totally psychic now," Caroline drawled, doodling on Charms textbook, "Didn't you guys know? She predicted that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley would be late, and now she says she knew that Mrs. Norris would get petrified."

Everyone else exchanged glances.

"That's not true!" Bonnie cried, shaking her head and her long, curly hair. She had forgone the braids this year. "I just said that I had a really bad feeling, is all, and then bad stuff happened!"

"Do you know who the Heir of Slytherin is, then?" Caroline asked, blithely ignoring everything else Bonnie's said.

Bonnie groaned, dropping her head onto the tabletop. She said, her voice muffled, "I. Don't. Know."

"Maybe it's Malfoy," Elena suggested, "He's a jerk." She peered at Jeremy. "Has Malfoy mentioned anything like that?"

"No," Jeremy said, "Malfoy doesn't know who the Heir is, but he says he's glad that the mu-muggleborns are getting what they deserve, though."

"I'll show him what he deserves," Lexi growled, and Stefan patted her on the arm gently to soothe the girl's hot-headed temper.

"That's awful what he's saying," Bonnie said, raising her head. She sniffed.

Jeremy just shrugged and looked down at his book in his lap. His green tie was crooked, and his brown hair was ruffled and in his eyes.

"Well, if you guys don't think it's Malfoy, who do you think it could be?" Neville asked nervously.

The Gryffindors, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and the Slytherin were all stumped.

"I wonder where the Chamber of Secrets is . . ." Lexi murmured, starting up the conversation again.

"I bet Hermione knows," Elena said.

"That know-it-all, Granger?" Caroline scoffed, and got glared at.

"She's our friend, Caroline," Stefan defended.

"She's still a know-it-all," Caroline muttered, but said nothing more.

"Or we could do our own research to find out where it is," Stefan suggested in the sudden silence, "We are in the library."

There was an awkward silence.

"Uh, duh," Lexi said and hopped up to find a book. The others followed suit.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Look at the notice board!" Lexi shouted and instantly she was hounded by several Gryffindors attempting to peer over her head at the new sheet of paper pinned up. The blond girl ducked out from underneath the barrage of teenagers and ran to the couch by the fire where several of her friends sat patiently.

"What's the new notice, Lexi?" Neville asked curiously, looking up from his Herbology essay. Elena was nose deep in research for a History of Magic project, but her eyes peeked up from the pages. Stefan blinked owl-like eyes, waking from an impromptu nap on the sofa.

"There's dueling club starting up! We should all join!" Lexi's eyes were bright with excitement and her voice carried across the Common Room, making a few Seventh Years wince.

"Who's heading it up?" Elena asked curiously.

Lexi frowned. "It didn't say. Maybe it's Professor Flickwick – I heard he has a lot of dueling experience."

"He's supposed to be the best," Stefan agreed, yawning wide. Elena laughed at him, smiling and Stefan blushed under her gaze. Lexi rolled her eyes.

"I think we should do it," She repeated, "and I won't take no for an answer."

"Let's ask Bonnie and Caroline if they'd like to come too," Neville suggested quietly, "And maybe Ginny Weasley. She's been feeling left out and lonely since she got to Hogwarts, and I've talked to her a few times. She's nice, but a little nervous with everything going on at school."

There was a beat of silence, before Lexi said, "I think that was the longest speech I've ever heard you make, Nev."

The boy blushed.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Who can believe that Harry Potter's a Parselmouth?" Caroline gushed to her friends as they all sat under the shade of a wide tree in the courtyard.

Stefan raised his hand, and everyone's gaze shot to him.

"What?" He asked, incredulously, "Is it that hard to believe? Anyone could be a Parselmouth, like, like anyone can be a Seer," Stefan nodded at Bonnie, "or a metamorphmagus, or something. And it can be taught, like any other language."

"Yeah, but the last known Parselmouth was You-Know-Who," Caroline said, her mouth pursed unpleasantly.

"It's kind of true, Stef," Elena said, but her eyes were narrowed thoughtfully at Stefan.

The boy in question looked down and shrugged, "Just saying."

The group shifted in the suddenly awkward atmosphere, and they heard Snape admonishing Harry and his friends for some slight or other in the hallway several yards away from them.

"I just want to know why he set the snake on Justin Finch-Fletchley," Caroline continued a moment later.

Stefan had to bite his tongue from telling everyone that Harry hadn't been trying to kill the muggleborn Second Year. Neville shot him an inquisitive look, and Stefan inclined his head. I'll you everything later, Stefan tried to communicate with his eyes.

Neville shrugged.

Later came sooner than Stefan could have imagined as the bell rang and everyone was scurrying off to their classes. Neville hung back and Stefan explained to his friend.

"No one but my mom knows, but Damon's a Parselmouth," Stefan whispered quietly into Neville's ear. The other boy gaped, but Stefan wasn't finished yet, "And he's been teaching me some stuff since he found out when he found out in his Fourth Year."

Neville didn't stop gaping until the two of them arrived in Charms, and still, Stefan was the one to shove Neville's jaw shut.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The End of the Year Feast was subdued from several reasons, only one of which being that Ginny Weasley had almost died in the Chamber of Secrets. (Not that the location of the Chamber was widely known – indeed, Stefan and his friends were nearly as good as finding out information they shouldn't as Harry's gang.)

The ride home on the train was quiet, if only because Caroline had opted out of riding with them – instead she was sitting elsewhere with Matt Donovan and several other Hufflepuffs and Bonnie.

When the children arrived at the station, Stefan and Neville parted ways and Stefan's kneazle – who he named Loki ("Really?" "It was a dude in mythology, it's not that strange!") – nuzzles Neville's hand.

"Stefan," Mrs. Salvatore greeted warmly and tugged her son into a hug. Loki sniffed disdainfully at Mr. Salvatore, and Neville couldn't help but think that the creature was an excellent judge of character.

"Um, Mrs. Salvatore?" Neville asked carefully. His Gran was a few paces behind him, waiting impatiently.

"Yes, Neville, dear?" Stefan's mother inquired, blinking her green eyes at him.

"Can Stefan come to my house for some of the holidays again, sometime this summer?"

"Of course," Mrs. Salvatore agreed immediately, "As long as it's alright with your Grandmother."

Neville smiled and said his thanks, watching as Mr. Salvatore gruffly pulled Stefan along, and Mrs. Salvatore's smile tightened at her husband.

Neville's Gran materialized at the young boy's shoulder as he watched his friend part. "Is there something going on at that boy's house, Neville?" She asked sternly.

Neville bit his lip. "His dad's kind of rough. Sometimes."

His Gran nodded, but gratefully, said nothing more on the matter. "Let's hope that he gets to come over for the holidays after all, then."


End file.
